A Huge Huge Result!!! Oh My!!

Mar 19, 2006

Hey Doc, thanks for posting this story. Could be a real help to many!

I WAS one of the worry wells on this forum for the past 6 months absolutely convinced I had aquired HIV by unprotected insertive oral sex with "worker". My symptoms 2 weeks after were headaches, diarrhea and loose stools, flaky skin, coated tongue, reactive lymph nodes confirmed by Dr., recurrent eye infections, fullness in ears, numbing of face and hands a few times, tiredness, toe nail infection, feeling hot on back and thighs a couple times, feet pain, lots of gas and rumbling, discomfort in urethra and testicles and so on.
I still have the loose stools, fullness in ears and dry flaky skin, but all else has finally gone away after months.

My testing was thorough and excessive.

DNA PCR at 1,2,3,4 months Neg.

Blood Drawn Elisa at 3 & 4 months Neg.

Oraquiks from 1 month out to 6 months. Neg.

Wife Oraquik at 3 months. Neg.
Should have been convinced by all this right? Wrong! It just was not enough to conclude given my symptoms!
So what happened next!
The BIG ONE!! I went BACK to the High Risk girl I swore gave HIV to me 6 months ago and paid her to have an HIV test done. It was a VERY risky move given her occupation I know! She could have become infected after me but what did I care, despite all my Neg. tests I was convinced I had it anyway. Well she turned up NEG.!!! Are you kidding me! Are you kidding me I shouted over and over again in complete disbelief and then sudden and very quik relief from a very nightmarish 6 months! I realize the chances of 2 Neg. results from 2 different people at 6 months could not possibly change. I have learned NOT TO WORRY ABOUT SYMPTOMS!! I never believed it but I guess now I have to!

Now if I can just get by this Subtype thing! JUST KIDDING!!
I am Done.

Doc, do you think it is a good idea for more people to test suspected partners or is that too much a risk in that just because they may show infection does not mean that the other person contracted it thus causing much more anxiety?

I do realize that if this girl did turn up Pos. I would be in a very difficult situation, but the constant anxiety made me take a chance.

2). And the chances of my Neg. 6 month test combined with her 6 month(would likely be longer for her in relation to the time I was with her)Neg. test changing would be???!!!

Thanks for everything Doc! Will be sending in a generous donation!!

G-Man

Response from Dr. Frascino

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to write in and share your story and great news! However, I do agree your testing was excessive. I would have recommended a single ELISA test at three months. That, as you can see in retrospect, would have given you your correct and definitively conclusive test result. All the rest is expensive overkill and merely corroborates what we already knew at three months.

As for testing the source of an exposure, it can be helpful in some situations occupational exposures for health care workers, for example. However, considering the estimated transmission risk statistics for exposures like yours, it would not make sense. The estimated per-act risk for acquiring HIV from unprotected insertive oral with a partner confirmed to be HIV positive is 0.5 per 10,000 exposures. Your estimated risk would have been even less because you did not know the HIV serostatus of your "worker." With risk statistics like that, whether the source was positive or not, testing would not make sense on multiple levels.

Finally, the chance of your being HIV positive (or seroconverting to HIV positive) is exactly zero, zip, zilch, nada! Absolutely no frickin' way! As Tony Soprano would say, it's time for you to fuhgeddaboutit!

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